t what the situation of the town is, and where
Vesuvius is in relation to it. Vesuvius, you observe, stands back a
little from the sea, but the slope of land extends quite down to the
margin of the water. You perceive, however, that there is a carriage
road, and also a railroad, passing along the coast between the mountain
and the sea.

Besides the villages and towns laid down on the map, upon this coast,
there are many little hamlets scattered along the way, so that, as seen
across the water from Naples, there seems to be, as it were, a continued
town, extending along the whole line of the shore.

Among the places named on the map you see the sites of Herculaneum and
Pompeii marked. Pompeii lies to the south-east from the mountain, and
Herculaneum to the south-west. Of course the lava, in breaking out from
the crater in different eruptions, runs down the mountain, sometimes on
one side and sometimes on another. It is the same with the showers of
stones and ashes, which are carried in different directions, according
to the course of the wind.

Very near the site of Herculaneum you see a small town laid down, named
Resina. This is the place where people stop when about to make the
ascent of Vesuvius, and leave the carriage in which they came from
Naples. If they come by the railroad, they leave the train at the
Portici station, which, also, you will see upon the map, and thence go
to Resina by a carriage.

At Resina they take another carriage, or sometimes go on in the same,
until they get up to what is called the Hermitage, the place of which
you also see marked on the map. The Hermitage is so called because the
spot was once the residence of a monk who lived there alone in his cell.
It is now, however, a sort of ruin.

There is no carriage road at all beyond the Hermitage, and here,
accordingly, the party of travellers take mules or donkeys, to go on
some distance farther. At last they reach a part of the mountain which
is so steep that even mules and donkeys cannot go; and here the people
are accordingly obliged to dismount, and to climb up the last part of
the ascent on foot, or else to be carried up in a chair, which is the
mode usually adopted for ladies. You will see how Mr. George and Rollo
managed, in the next chapter.

The ruins of Herculaneum can be visited on the same day in which you
make the ascent of Vesuvius; for, as you see by the map, they are very
near the place, Resina, where the ascent of the